Sharon Gardens Mission - (Day 2)

Wow, just WOW! We toured the Sharon Gardens Mission campus today. I feel like this is everything we should be doing for our world. They start by meeting the local people's physical needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Then they meet their occupational needs to bring them out of extreme poverty. All the while doing this in the name of Christ.

Sharon Gardens Mission:
They provide a full PK-12 education for the surrounding village.

They provide career training such as sewing, construction, and other career skills to help the people of the village earn a livable wage. It's still hard for me to imagine that a livable wage is about $3 per day.


They were the top cancer center in the area but now since the local hospitals are equipped for it, they saw the need for hospice care and are redesigning their medical center for the terminally ill.


They have a college that provides skills that are in high demand in the country. All of their students will have a job waiting for them after graduation.


After lunch, we visited the India Gospel League headquarters. I feel so blessed to see the people that are making things there. When you make a donation to IGL, the money seems to stretch by God-sized proportions.

They have a full service print shop which allows them to produce the materials for all of their outreaches and provide services for some of the local businesses. It's amazing what they can produce based on the age of the technology they are using. I think I even saw a pin printer in one of the offices!

For Sunday, please pray for safe travels as we head back to Bangalore and then fly to Pune for the pastors conference over the next several days.

We're here! (Day 1)

Thank you God for safe travels. All of our flights went off without a hitch, immigration gave us no issues, and we are all in good health to this point. We arrived in Bangalore at 2:45 AM Friday morning and got through Immigration, Customs, and checked in to the hotel by 4:00 AM. We then had a chance to get a little sleep and some breakfast before we needed to head out to Salem to stay at the Sharon Mission Base. Our drive to Salem took about 5 hours which included a stop to pick up our team member that is already living in India. Things noticied today:

1. The immense amount of poverty is heart breaking. With that being said, the people here seem to be incredibly hard working and ambitious.
2. Quiet is a relative term (so, I kind felt at home. lol)
3. The city is incredibly colorful. Even their construction vehicles are painted up in bright colors and decorations.
   
4. Roads with 3 lanes, really have 5 lanes.

Please pray for our continued health and that God will make His presence known throughout this trip. I have a lot more stuck in my head, but I'm too sleepy to think straight right now.

Welcome

Namaste! (ok, that is all the hindi I know) Thank you for joining me in my adventure to India. I will be joining a group of 6 men travelling from Western New York to Banglore, India to visit, learn about, and assist with the India Gospel League(http://iglworld.org/). Also, we will be serving at a pastors conference in Pune. This is going to be an amazing opportunity and is taking me way outside of my comfort zone. GOD is good, All of the time! -Sam